History of Andean South America
The history of human habitation in the Andean region of South America stretches from circa 15,000 BCE to the present day.
After the first humans — who were then arranged into hunter-gatherer tribal groups — arrived in South America via the Isthmus of Panama, they spread out across the continent, with the earliest evidence for settlement in the Andean region dating to circa 15,000 BCE, in what archaeologists call the Lithic Period.
In the 19th century, a rising tide of anti-imperialist nationalism that was sweeping all of South America led rebel armies to overthrow Spanish rule.
This in turn led to the rise of a number of anti-imperialist and socialist movements to oppose U.S. and multinational involvement in Andean South America.
[citation needed] After the evolution of anatomically modern humans in East Africa circa 200,000 years ago, the species spread across the African continent and into Europe and Asia.
There would have been strong taboos against incest, something that would have prevented inbreeding (a particular problem amongst the genetic homogeneity of the Indigenous South Americans), and instead marriage was controlled by social conventions, such as the development of moiety systems of societal duality.
Instead, the early hunter-gatherer pioneers would have most likely stuck to the margins of the continent, where they could exploit the resources in the rivers, deltas and salt-water lagoons.
Gradually, as their descendants became acclimatised to the altitude, groups of humans began to move up and inhabit higher points of the Andes.
[5] One of the earliest known Andean sites that have been properly investigated by archaeologists is that at Monte Verde in Southern Chile, which has been radiocarbon dated to 14,800 years ago.
At this site, there was evidence for seasonal settlement along the sandy banks of a creek in the subarctic pine forests of the low southern Cordillera, at which were found preserved wooden and stone tools, remnants of wild vegetables such as potatoes, and the skeletal remains of five or six mastodons which had been scavenged or hunted by the human occupants.
[8] It was also in this period that Andean communities first began to domesticate crops, genetically transforming various plant species from their wild counterparts.
[10] It is the latter of these features that remains the most visually obvious characteristic of the Pre-Ceramic amongst archaeologists, and indicates that by this time, Andean society was sufficiently developed that it could organise large building projects involving the management of labor.
[11] The Pre-Ceramic Period also saw a rise in the population of the Andean region, with the possibility that many people were partially migratory, spending much of their year in rural areas but moving to the monumental ceremonial centers for certain times which were seen as having special significance.
[12] The Pre-Ceramic also saw changes in the climate of the Andean region, for the culmination of the Ice Age had led to an end of the glacial meltback which had been occurring throughout the Lithic Period, and as a result the sea levels on the west coast of South America stabilized.
[16] The introduction of pottery was however "simply one part of a much larger socioeconomic transformation" along the Andean coast, as communities ceased seeing their coastal settlements as the major centers of activity in favour of more inland locations, and as such the former maritime-based economy was replaced by one that was dominated by irrigation farming.
Located on the bank of the Río Higueras, Kotosh was at an elevation of c. 2000 metres above sea level, and consisted of "two large platform mounds flanked by lesser constructions and a number of small structures on a nearby river terrace.
"[19] Another notable example of the Kotosh Religious Tradition can be seen at La Galgada in the Callejón de Huaylas, modern Peru, which again consists of two platform mounds and several surrounding structures.
It is not considered to be a real empire, but rather a collection of loosely connected cities, since there is no evidence of any dynasties, state-maintained roads and markets.
In the following decades, under the leadership of Pachacuti's son Tupac Inca Yupanqui, reigning from 1471 to 1493, it expanded rapidly, and by the arrival of Columbus, it was the largest empire of Pre-Columbian Americas.
[citation needed] A key figure in the Latin American wars of independence was Simón Bolívar; in gratitude the nation of Bolivia adopted its name after him.
In 2006, Evo Morales of the Movement for Socialism party was elected President of Bolivia, whilst later that year Rafael Correa of the PAIS Alliance was elected President of Ecuador; both Morales and Correa were socialists, nationalising industry and opposing United States influence in their respective nations.
